The invention relates generally to credential readers of access control systems, and more particularly to readers for scanning an RFID (radio frequency identification) input, such as a user credential.
For over thirty years, access control systems have often been used to impede unauthorized personnel from accessing floors or other areas such as in a building, for example, by using the elevators to gain access to certain floors. A technology employing elevator dispatch kiosks emerged to capture destinations, thus improving real time planning for elevator scheduling. These systems typically are able to both reduce wait time and reduce energy consumption. U.S. Pat. No. 7,040,458B2 is directed to the operation of one of these systems. Tenant security may be enhanced by restricting destination floors based on presented credentials. Such a secured elevator dispatch system typically impedes access to unauthorized floors.
In accordance with an operation of a secured elevator dispatch system, a credential is presented to a kiosk reader. The reader retrieves the credential indicium, which the elevator dispatch system uses to retrieve the allowed floors from the elevator database, base building database, or other applicable database for the indicium. The desired floor is chosen from the kiosk by the credential holder. The elevator system schedules a cab for the selected floor, and the elevator dispatch system directs the credential holder to enter the scheduled cab.
A possible problem with the system described above is that the tenant's employees must hold a credential stored in the elevator dispatch system database. As taught by U.S. Pat. No. 8,370,911, this may not be desirable, and may introduce problems. For example, database synchronization and exposure of the tenant employee list to third parties are two potential problems that may arise. Furthermore, elevator dispatch systems may be programmed to respond to unknown cards with an error message to the person presenting the card at the kiosk. This error message often introduces delays and confusion for the person selecting his destination, which may be undesirable in certain applications.
As taught by U.S. Pat. No. 9,019,071, methods exist that rely upon de facto industry standards for communication between the RFID reader and the associated security equipment. A potential problem is that new technologies have been introduced, which do not rely upon the de facto industry standard connections, or which are encrypted like OSDP (Open Supervised Device Protocol) which seeks to cryptographically secure the data side of the reader. Additionally, the architectural demands on the kiosk may preclude industry de facto standard readers.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved system, method and device for scanning a variety of RFID input, such as a variety of user credentials, which overcome drawbacks and inadequacies of known devices, methods and systems.